Xi: Shanghai must seize opportunities presented by Expo

(Eastday.com)
Updated: 2007-04-11 14:42

The hosting of World Expo 2010 presents Shanghai with important opportunities in the city's development as well as being a major force in building a harmonious society, Xi Jinping, secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, said yesterday when checking the preparatory work for the Expo.

Accompanied by Vice Mayor Yang Xiong and Zhong Yanqun, full-time deputy director of the World Expo 2010 Shanghai Executive Committee, Xi yesterday visited the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center, Jiangnan Shipyard and the Expo Site.

On his visit, Xi asked about the relocation of companies, the master plan of the Expo Site and the preservation of historical buildings.

Later in the meeting, Xi said the central government and the state council attached great importance to Shanghai's development and to World Expo 2010.

"We should enhance the our sense of responsibility and make better preparations for the Expo with the support of all the government departments, neighboring provinces, the Yangtze Delta region, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan," Xi said. "The Expo is China's mission and is also a national project. We should meet the requirements of the central government and the organising committee."

Xi said the organisers should better develop the Expo theme -- "Better City, Better Life" -- and concentrate on human-oriented activities, innovative technology and multi-cultural concepts to demonstrate a harmonious society.

Xi added that Shanghai should seize the significant opportunity presented by hosting the World Expo to improve its industrial structure, enhance international communication and cooperation and realize an interaction within the Yangtze Delta Region in order to exert an "Expo effect."

Shanghai should create a good atmosphere for the construction of a harmonious society by adding environmental protection and biological concept to urban planning and improve the standard of urban construction and administration as well as public services, Xi said.

Xi said the organisers should insist on holding a cost-efficient Expo and implement the preparation work, including site construction and theme development, with high-efficiency and high-quality.

Xi said the organisers should push the preparatory work for the Expo into a new phase, with an emphasis on media promotion, collecting ideas from experts at home and abroad, so that the city will host a "successful, splendid and unforgettable" Expo.